We Need To Get Some Help
Why America’s approach to crime and mental health has failed
Most Americans will struggle with their mental health at some point in their lives. Anyone who has braved the complex maze of insurance, therapists, psychiatrists, and pharmacists will tell you that it’s a nightmare to deal with on top of whatever mental health challenge you happen to face.
Anxiety and depression are becoming more prevalent and will likely see further increases as we attempt to pick up the pieces we dropped during the pandemic.
Covid has dramatically reshaped how we see and think about the world and made apparent to many the failings and shortcomings of America’s social systems and institutions. Mental health professionals are expecting to see an increase in depression, anxiety, isolation, and other mental health issues as the pandemic continues.
Soon, many Americans will come face-to-face with the mental healthcare system for the first time, and they’ll be shocked when they learn that there isn’t one.
America’s approach to mental health so far seems to be to ignore the problem and hope it goes away.
It will not. It will only get worse.
The pandemic has accelerated something that was already festering in areas most try not to see. Mental health services are almost a luxury under the current system, denying essential services to the most vulnerable Americans. Treatment for unseen mental illness is seen as a waste of money that could be better spent, and many low-income families must forgo treatment to pay bills or buy food.
This issue isn’t limited to low-income families; stigma surrounding attending therapy or being diagnosed with a mental disorder also prevents many from seeking treatment.
Part of this stigma is due to the cost of such services; it’s terrifying to think that a loved one might need expensive, professional help to overcome whatever mental mountains they face. It’s even worse if that help is impossible to afford.
Mental health issues in low-income families are apparent to all, but the impossibility of affording treatment is just as obvious, making the sufferer feel as if they are a burden to those around them and exacerbating feelings of guilt and hopelessness. It is important that we change the way we think about mental health in America; no one is immune to these issues and many could benefit from some form of treatment.
Obstacles to the Pursuit of Happiness
The stigma faced by people struggling with their mental health is as diverse as the people themselves. Therapy has become more accepted in recent years, especially among younger generations, but we still have a long way to go.
This article isn’t about anxiety or depression. This article is about what people think about the “severe” disorders that many are afraid to admit they have, the terrifying hallucinations they can’t distinguish from reality, and the thoughts they’re starting to think might be a problem.
True, there is stigma surrounding depression and anxiety, but it is dwarfed by the stigma faced by someone with schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, or one of the ten personality disorders.
This stigma prevents people from seeking the help that could save their life or the lives of those near them. When mental health is neglected, it mutates into something much worse, often spreading and infecting those close to the sufferer.
Untreated mental disorders affect the children of those suffering from them in very real and long-lasting ways, leading to issues later in life. The money we save by ignoring the problem isn’t gaining interest, but the disease is metastasizing.
Can You Afford Sanity?
Stigma is one obstacle on the path towards a healthy society, but there are many others that might prevent someone from seeking treatment. The most obvious is money, the true American god.
Americans worship money because it is what shields us from the institutions meant to help us, heal us, and protect us from an increasingly fractured society. The cliché, “money doesn’t buy happiness,” is often thrown around by those who don’t understand that money allows you to spend time figuring out how to be happy. Money can’t buy happiness, but it can buy time, a doctor, a psychiatrist, therapist, or lawyer as needed.
Americans have been conditioned into a scarcity mindset that breeds suspicion and apathy towards others. This mindset creates workers who are so afraid of losing what little they have that they see social programs and taxes as theft, see equality as a threat, and see their fellow Americans as competition.
Our politicians tell us that healthcare is too expensive, or that America is different than the rest of the world. We don’t need an expensive healthcare system that’s going to take away all our choices and freedoms.
Don’t you feel so light and free when you’re in the emergency room, filling out insurance paperwork, wondering if the pain in your chest was really all that important, wondering how much it’s going to set you back?
Health — both mental and physical — is a luxury good in America, and our short-sighted “solutions” are coming back to haunt us.
Don’t Get Comfortable
So far, I’ve outlined why someone might not seek treatment due to social stigma or limited resources, but now I’ll focus on why certain conditions are so difficult to face, and how certain populations are conditioned to reject or fear treatment.
The way we treat common issues such as anxiety or depression is worrying enough, but the way we treat more severe conditions is actually counterproductive in most cases. I’ll outline a few examples below to illustrate my point.
Those living with severe mood disorders or schizophrenia spectrum disorders are much less likely to be employed than those without. Because healthcare is almost always tied to employment in America, many live without the possibility of treatment unless they can rely on family or one of the other pieces of our patchwork system.
Taking the first step is hard enough for most people, but many realize that there are no steps available to them after the first. They don’t have family or friends to rely on and end up homeless or trapped in a cycle of poverty they have no chance of escaping from.
This desperation leads to further mental health issues, crime, and suicide. This is the point where most reader’s empathy will run out, but I have some to spare. I’ll be here to walk you through the rest.
Brace Yourself
My two other examples are populations most people would wish away, if possible, but it’s not possible; burying your head in the sand won’t help anyone. Think of the children, won’t you? Now that we’re on the topic, how do you feel when you hear or read the word “pedophile”?
Fear, disgust, anger, or perhaps hatred? Most people would agree that anyone who is sexually attracted to children should “get some help,” but what does that help look like?
If you’ve been paying attention, you won’t be too surprised to learn that it doesn’t look like anything because it doesn’t really exist.
Some people are born with an attraction that they can’t act on, feel they can’t share with anyone, and might not even be able to admit to themselves. For these people, society offers only hatred and rejection.
I can’t think of any group of people who are as vilified as much as those who abuse children, but child abuser and pedophile are two different terms that society doesn’t distinguish between.
In the minds of most people, if someone is attracted to children, they’re a danger to society and should be locked up to prevent any children from being harmed.
How does this hate protect children?
It doesn’t.
It isolates those with the attraction and weakens the ties to society that prevent them from offending.
Most people would rather live in a world where pedophiles don’t exist, and because they do exist, you project your obsession with sex onto those who are attracted to children. It’s inconceivable that someone could experience that attraction and not act on it, but sexual attraction doesn’t override morality the way you expect.
There are some offenders who don’t care much for morals, but truly antisocial offenders delight in your disgust because it fuels their own hatred of society. Their motivation isn’t sexual attraction, it’s sadism.
Children are the most vulnerable members of society, and sadists are attracted to vulnerability and control.
The stigma surrounding pedophilia exists because we tell ourselves that it is warranted, but most of us fail to consider the result.
The result is the situation we are trying to prevent in the first place. That stigma isolates and ostracizes, causing pedophiles to become withdrawn and depressed. That stigma creates the conditions required for the offense: despair, isolation, and a profound sense of abandonment.
The Land of Outlaws
For a country obsessed with crime and criminals, you’d think we’d have a good system for dealing with them.
We don’t.
America’s criminal justice system is broken, brutal, and seems designed to perpetuate the problems it claims to remedy. When someone enters the prison system in America for the first time, it usually isn’t the last.
Being branded a criminal is comparable to being diagnosed with a severe mental disorder, so is it any wonder that many return to crime once they are released?
Options are limited, but eating isn’t an option. Combine obvious issues regarding policing and criminal justice with the issues I’ve described above, and you have the recipe for a very sick nation.
People who grow up surrounded by crime and danger develop mental illnesses at much higher rates than those who don’t, and they’re much less likely both to seek and receive effective treatment. Unstable environments create desperation that creates crime. Crime creates criminals who create more mental illness, and the cycle never ends.
But Who’s Going to Pay for It?
All of this is sounding very expensive, isn’t it? Nobody wants to pay for it, so we all pay for it.
You pay for it when you worry about insurance, when you forgo treatment or medication because it’s too expensive, or when you get the call and learn that the friend you suspected might need help didn’t get it in time.
Do you think you’re getting what you’re paying for?
I don’t.
